Succeeding Against the Odds

Black multimillionaire Johnson, assisted by Bennett, executive editor of Ebony magazine, recounts with simplicity, zest and humorous anecdotes how, as a 24-year-old from a small Mississippi River town, he parlayed a $500 loan into a publishing, cosmetics and insurance empire. Negro Digest , the first magazine he founded, was followed by Ebony (the first national black publication) and Jet . Thanks to success brought about by his sound social, business and political instincts, Johnson now enjoys a life spent ``going first class,'' including owning a Palm Springs mountain-top home; participating in corporate board meetings (where he is accustomed to being the only black); and hobnobbing with the likes of Michael and Jesse Jackson and Gorbachev. Credited by some with ``inventing'' the black consumer market, Johnson is proudest of his role in reporting and abetting the crusade of Martin Luther King Jr. And despite his successes, he contends, without bitterness, that his millions could have been billions were it not for the ``live wire of race.'' Photos not seen by PW. (May)